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Hugo Strange (Earth-One)
Strange Apparitions During the time when Batman and the Gotham City Police Department thought him deceased, Hugo Strange fled to Europe to pursue his illicit ambitions there free from the bedevilment of costumed crime-fighters. Dissatisfied with the lack of challenge by the regular law enforcers, Strange returned to Gotham City where he hatched a new plot to ransom Gotham's most affluent citizens by establishing a mental health clinic for the wealthy, where he would transform his "patients" into Monster Men and hold them up for ransom. Bruce Wayne, having recently battled the superhuman psychopath Doctor Phosphorous as Batman, checked into the clinic to recover from radiation burns sustained during that fight, unaware of the institution's true, insidious nature. In his guise as Batman, Bruce soon discerned that something was amiss with the situation and learned that the clinic was a front for an illegal operation headed by the chief of staff, Dr. Todhunter. However, Batman's investigation of the premises was stopped when Todhunter, actually Strange in disguise, had him drugged and unmasked him in this disoriented state. Now cognizant of the Batman's true identity, Strange modified his plans to account for this most unexpected turn of events and set into motion another, multifaceted, potentially more rewarding subterfuge. Strange would disguise himself as Bruce Wayne and pilfer the Wayne Foundation of its considerable funds, before organizing an underworld auction for the knowledge of the Batman's secret identity. Once word of the auction spread, Strange instantly attracted the attention of three interested possible bidders: The Joker, the Penguin and corrupt Gotham City Council member Rupert Thorne. All events seemed to point towards the revelation of the Batman's most closely preserved secret, yet things did not go as anticipated in the end, as Thorne's henchmen kidnapped Strange and tried to torture the information of Batman's alter ego out of him. Resistant to the end, Strange apparently died from the abuse he suffered at Thorne's hands, and his corpse was evidently then dumped into the harbor. Ghostly Comeback In the subsequen weeks after his demise, the ghost of Hugo Strange routinely threatened Rupert Thorne upon his every appearance with impending doom. Driven to the brink of madness from the shock and uncertainty of it all, Thorne hired Doctor Thirteen to discredit the reality of the "ghost". As might be expected, Doctor Thirteen deduced that the phantasm was a holographic projection generated by devices surreptitiously scattered throughout Thorne's residence and that its voice was merely a recording. Consumed by crippling paranoia, Thorne convinced himself that the appearance of Strange's "ghost" was the work of two subordinate, corrupt elected officials, whom he suspected of conspiring to overthrow him: Mayor Hamilton Hill and Police Commissioner Peter Pauling. Eager to take action against the perceived traitors, Thorne started with Pauling and successfully murdered him, only to be shot himself and taken in by the Batman. In the aftermath, it was revealed that the "ghost of Hugo Strange" was actually the doing of the real Hugo Strange, who was alive and well the whole time. Strange had survived Thorne's torture and interrogation, using a yoga technique to slow down his heart rate to be virtually undetectable and thus simulate death, explaining how he had survived the seemingly fatal ordeal. With his revenge on Rupert Thorne exacted, however, now Strange was free to focus his efforts once again on the Batman. For this purpose, Strange created a fake Wayne Manor including robot versions of Alfred and Robin and his own fake Batcave. This was chosen as the place for the final confrontation, when Strange would kill Batman and he would become the next Batman. However, his plan was thwarted by the real Batman and Robin, who arrived in time to aid his partner. Defeated, Strange activated a detonator to blow up the place with all of them inside, but all he accomplished was to destroy his fake replica of Wayne Manor and the Batcave. The heroes escaped unscathed and Strange was presumed dead. Hugo Strange made one last comeback, revealing that he was never even present at the time when the explosion destroyed his Batcave replica. Instead, it was another of his robots and afterwards, he started planning Batman's downfall. Strange attacked Bruce Wayne and caused him to lose all his money, his home and his allies. In turn, the took over all of Wayne's possessions and tried to expose the truth to the world, but once again he was defeated by Batman and the new Robin. Taken to prison, Strange was made to believe that his knowledge of Batman's secret is merely a result of a purposefully hypnosis by Batman, but the conflicting information drives him relatively insane. | Powers = | Abilities = * : Strange trained venomous snakes to attack on command. * : He is also a master manipulator, as well as being skilled at infiltration. ** : Strange was a master at disguising his voice and using high-quality masks to impersonate others, including Bruce Wayne. * * : He developed a formula for transforming people into monsters. * | Strength = | Weaknesses = * | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = | Trivia = | Recommended = | Wikipedia = Hugo Strange | Links = }}